Skiers and Snowmobilers Missing in Southern Colorado Snow Storm

MSNBC reports:

Six snowmobilers and two skiers were reported missing in heavy snow in the mountains of southern Colorado, and one hiker was missing in snow-covered mountains in Southern California.

Rescuers in Colorado resumed a search Sunday for six snowmobilers last seen Friday, before the storm dumped 3 to 4 feet of snow near Cumbres Pass, close to the New Mexico line.

The Denver Post said the snowmobilers were two couples from Farmington, N.M., and their two children, ages 14 and 13.

Donna Oney of the Colorado State Patrol said 11 search and rescue team members and three deputies were looking for the snowmobilers.

Matthew Murray Shot Himself After Being Taken Down by Jeanne Assam

An autopsy determined that Murray killed himself with a bullet to the head after he was brought down by gunfire from a volunteer security guard at the church, authorities said.

Rantings of Matthew Murray

Matthew Murray reportedly ranted prior to his attacks in Colorado at Youth With A Mission in Denver and New Life Church in Colorado Springs:

"You Christians brought this on yourselves," Murray reportedly wrote on a website for people who have left Pentecostal and fundamentalist religious organisations, shortly before the second of his two attacks.

"I'm coming for EVERYONE soon and I WILL be armed to the @#%$ teeth and I WILL shoot to kill. ... God, I can't wait till I can kill you people. Feel no remorse, no sense of shame, I don't care if I live or die in the shoot-out.

"All I want to do is kill and injure as many of you ... as I can especially Christians who are to blame for most of the problems in the world."

Source: KUSA TV

Matthew Murray, in these writings, sounds like a terrorist to me, a person motivated by hatred of others' religious beliefs. Someone who has decided that he has a right, perhaps even a responsibility to set himself above others. He sounds like someone who has put himself in the place of God, deciding who has the right to live and who must die.

Account of Jeanne Assam's Response to Matthew Murray

Early on Sunday morning, Matthew Murray, 24, the home-schooled son of devoutly Christian parents, had shot and killed two people at the Youth With a Mission training center in a Denver suburb. Twelve hours later, police say, he drove to Colorado Springs and started shooting in the parking lot of the New Life church before walking inside the church building as a service was letting out, shooting as he went.

He took two more lives at the church. He was in the building when Bourbannais (a member of New Life Church who is a Vietnam veteran) arrived.

“I ran and heard the gunfire and it was roaring like thunder,” Bourbannais told Meredith Vieira (TODAY co-host).

He saw a male security guard with his gun drawn, but the guard was not firing at the Murray.

“I said, ‘Gimme your handgun. I’ve been in combat. I’m going to take this guy out,’ ” he said, adding he repeated the request four or five times, but the guard would not hand him the weapon.

Bourbannais was behind a pillar at the time, deciding what to do next.

“The only thing I could think to do was walk out from the pillar so the gunman would see me,” he said. “He was a man in black, but he sure wasn’t Johnny Cash.

“So I yelled, ‘Coward!’ stood out, and our eyes met and he lifted his rifle, fired, and I took a few fragments – very minor – in my left forearm.”

Bourbannais stepped behind the pillar again and repeated his demand that the security guard give him a gun so he could take the shooter out. When he got no response, Bourbannais stepped out from behind the pillar to confront Murray again.

At that point, another security guard, 42-year-old Jeanne Assam, arrived with her gun drawn. Unlike the male guard, she was using hers.

“They were engaged in a firefight. He was firing. She was firing,” Bourbannais said. “And she was completely exposed. I was in Vietnam for 14 months in combat, and it’s the bravest thing I’ve ever witnessed. She kept yelling, ‘Surrender,’ and returned fire the complete time.”

Bourbannais walked parallel to her toward Murray as Assam shot him.

“As he slumped down and his head tilted, I said to her, ‘That’s the calmest, bravest thing I‘ve ever seen. How did you do it?’ “ he said. “She said ‘I was praying and asking the Holy Spirit the entire time to guide me.’ ”

Vieira asked Bourbannais if he realized that he could have been killed.

“I figured my chances were 30 percent,” he said, as calm as if he were describing a trip to the corner store.

“It’s the grace of God,” he said. “Like Jeanne, we’re both followers of Christ. I want to give God the glory, because I’m convinced He spared us that day.”

Beyond Imagining: Family Loses Two Daughters in Colorado Springs' Shooting

COLORADO SPRINGS, CO -- A family is grieving Monday after their two teenage girls were killed in Sunday's shooting spree at the New Life Church.

"I'm asking Colorado Springs and the country to please pray for that family this morning because they're going through a very difficult time," said Reverend Brady Boyd, the senior pastor at New Life Church.

Authorities say 18-year-old Stephanie Works and 16-year-old Rachael Works died from their injuries after a gunman opened fire outside New Life Church on Sunday.

Jeanne Assam: Security Guard at New Life Church

Security Guard at New Life Church of Colorado Springs, Colorado who confronted and shot Matthew Murray, the 24 year old shooter. Note in the following report that Assam and other volunteer security guards at the church are trained and licensed. Assam acknowledges God's help and presence, but she is not a vigilante.

Bea Karnes writes:

Assam said that it felt as if it was just she, the gunman and God in the church. "I give the credit to God. I say that very humbly," said Assam. "Because of the fire power he had versus what I had, (it) was God. I did not run away, and I didn't think for even a minute to run away. I just knew that I was given the assignment to end this before it got too much worse....My hands weren't even shaking."

Assam acknowledged that it was loud and scary. She repeated "so loud" three times during the news conference.

Assam is part of a security detail at the church that's licensed, trained and equipped with firearms. They're all church members who worship at one service, while being assigned to provide security at a different service. Assam didn't hesitate to shoot the gunman. "I just knew that I wasn't going to wait for him to do further damage," she said.

Another Young Murderer: Matthew Murray Identified As Colorado Killer

JUDITH KOHLER writes:

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - The gunman believed to have killed four people at a megachurch and a missionary training school had been thrown out of the school a few years ago and had been sending it hate mail, police said in court papers Monday.

The gunman was identified as Matthew Murray, 24, who was home-schooled in what a friend said was a deeply religious Christian household. Murray's father is a neurologist and a leading multiple-sclerosis researcher.

Five people — including Murray — were killed, and five others wounded Sunday in the two eruptions of violence 12 hours and 65 miles apart.

An Armed Guard Kills Colorado Gunman

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - A hospital official said early Monday that a second victim of a gunman's shooting spree at New Life Church has died, bringing the death toll from both Colorado attacks to five.

Earlier, a gunman shot four staff members at a missionary training center near Denver, killing two, after being told he could not spend the night. About 12 hours later and 65 miles (105 kilometers) away, a gunman shot parishioners at a megachurch before a guard killed him, police said.

A guard killed the gunman; now this is the person who should be carrying a gun openly...

Colorado Springs' Church Parking Lot Shootings

COLORADO SPRINGS, Colo. - A gunman opened fire in the parking lot of a Colorado Springs church on Sunday, striking four people, the church's pastor said.

The conditions of the people shot outside the New Life Church were not known, El Paso County Sheriff's Lt. Lari Sevene said.

Lance Coles, a pastor at New Life Church, told The Associated Press he received a report that a man was shooting at people in the church parking lot and that the gunman may have entered the church.

It was not immediately known whether the shootings were related to an earlier shooting about 70 miles away in the Denver suburb of Arvada. There, two people died and two were wounded early Sunday when a gunman opened fire in a dormitory at a missionary training center on the campus of Faith Bible Chapel.

Two Dead in Denver by Unknown Gunman

Early Sunday (December 9th) a gunman entered Youth With A Mission center dormitory and opened fire, murdering two staff members: Tiffany Johnson, 26, and Philip Crouse, 23. The other two were wounded; one is in critical condition; the other stable.

The gunman was apparently a 20-year-old white male, wearing a jacket and cap, possibly sporting a beard and wearing eyeglasses. He has not been apprehended.

Denver Shooting at Youth Missionary Training Center

DENVER - A gunman walked into a training center for young Christian missionaries in a Denver suburb early Sunday and opened fire, wounding at least four people.

The shooting happened at about 12:30 a.m. on Sunday at the Youth With a Mission center, Arvada Police spokeswoman Susan Medina said.

The extent of the injuries was not clear, and the gunman was still at large Sunday morning.

According to its Web site, Youth With a Mission has about 1,000 locations worldwide and trains people to become missionaries. About 50 people were inside the Arvada site when the gunman opened fire.